Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

The best retro gadgets for Christmas 2012

Our collection of top tech stocking-fillers will take you back, way back on a journey into the past...

20 November 2012/12:01GMT

Come Christmastime, we naturally get nostalgic – and what better way to scratch that itch than with some tech that harks back to the glorious past? These gadgets have timeless style, but they're packed with up-to-the-minute tech – because let's be honest, 8-track cassettes and C64 loading screens are best left in the past. Here are our suggestions for some top notch retro stocking fillers.

Our Stuff Gadget Awards 2012 Camera of the Year isn’t just a favourite because of its superior viewfinder and retina-slicingly clear image quality. We love its old school looks and design too: the manual zoom ring, push-on lens cap and faux Vulcanite covering are all evocative of a more romantic time in photography, before we all started using our phones to take sepia-tinted photos of burgers.

Fujifilm Finepix X10

Speaking of tinted photos, here’s a thing: this iPhone 4 or 4S case from retro camera maker Holga features actual real-life filters. Just twist until you find the one you like: some are simple colour filters, while others include a triple image filter and a 60mm macro lens. Instagram who?

Not only does the Berlin Boombox create a mental time warp back to the streets of the South Bronx in the early 1980s, it’s made of recycled cardboard and you have to build it yourself. Perfect for whiling away the hours on Christmas Day – and you can even colour it in using felt tip pens. Hook up your iPod, blast some Run DMC and start doing the electric boogaloo right there in front of the Christmas tree.

Holga iPhone Lens Filter Case

One of the best-loved computers in history is back in the form of the C64x. While it shares the case design of the original, this is a powerful PC with a dual-core Intel Atom processor, Nvidia graphics card, optical drive and more – but it can be booted into a Linux-based 8-bit mode that apes the original 80s machine.

With the iPad finding a worthy niche as a games machine, it’s only fair to cradle it in a classic arcade-style joystick dock. The iCade Core works with over 500 games, so there are plenty of opportunities to mash on those lovely round buttons. Thanks to its use of Bluetooth to connect, it's compatible with all iPads – including the new Lightning connector-equipped iPad.